And harvey allen



'UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. ROBBINS, OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, AND HARVEY ALLEN, OF ALLENl GROVE, WISCONSIN.

AIR AND WATER TIGHT MAIL-BAG.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,253, dated September 7, 1852.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, CHAs. A. RoBBrNs, of Iowa City, in the county of Johnson and State of Iowa, and HARvEY ALLEN, ofAllen Grove, in the county of Walworth and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fastenings for Mail and other Bags; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being vhad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, is a side view of the bag and clasp; Fig. 2, a top view representing the bag open; Fig. 3, a transverse section of the jaws a: b forming the clasp.

The same letters of reference denote same parts throughout the figures.

The nature of our invention consists in securing on the outside of the bag near its mouth aclasp formed of jaws hinged together at one end and locking together at the other, the said jaws being made with a tongue and groove in them and being otherwise so constructed and attached as that when closed and locked they crimp either side ofthe bag in between them and so form the bag itself air and water-tight.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention we will proceed more fully to describe it.

A represents the bag which should be made of elastic and water proof material or otherwise be lined with the same.

a b are the metallic jaws of the clasp; they are hinged together at one end and secured by rivets or in any other waylfor about half their length (more or less) from the hinge on either side of the bag near its mouth.

cis the hinge uniting the jaws at their one end, and dis a lock (spring or otherwise) on the opening extremity of the jaw a, into which lock, theI hasp e of the jaw b enters for securing and locking the bag when closed; the jaw a has a groove f in its interior face or side where it is attached to or Presses on the bag; this groove is referred to by letter f in Fig. 3 and extends the whole length of the aw; a projecting tongue g, of similar form and length to the groove f, is made on the inner'face of the jaw Y), so that when the two jaws forming the clasp are brought together (in closing the bag) and locked, the elastic or flexible material of the bag -is crimped in between the tongue and groove of the aws and t-hereby made to form a packing so as to insure, air and Water tight, the mouth of the bag.

We are aware that hinged clasps or clamps have been used for drawing together and keeping closed the mouth of the bag, such therefore merely of themselves we do not claim; but

That we do claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is Forming the jaws of the clasp with a tongue and groove on their inner faces, for crimping in the elastic material of the bag, and causing it to act as packing in effectually making air and water tight, the mouth of the bag, as herein shown and set forth.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto signed our names before two subscribing witnesses.

CHAS. A. ROBBINS. HARVEY ALLEN.

Witnesses:

GEO. S. HAMPTON, WM. J. JOHNSON. 

